Persona 5: Project: Perfection
by Megashade15
Summary: Two brothers after a long trip overseas return home to live with their grandmother. Atleast that's what the thought at first, things start to get hectic in their lives after they and a couple friends discover Project: Perfection. Reviews are appreciated.
1. Our New Home

Our New Home

A gleaming sliver train was slowly but surely making its way across the ocean below it. Two boys sat inside the train, one had black hair that spiked out a few inches in front of him, he also had blue eyes whose color almost resembled the ocean below him. He wore a black hoodie that had some very striking highlights of blue. His brother next to him was taller and his hair was shorter and less spiky, his eyes were also a darker shade of blue, and he wore a red t-shirt.

Emile, the boy with the hoodie, pulled out his phone and checked the time, 7:00pm. It had been five hours since they left the station back in Penn station in Manhattan. Emile sighed and looked out the window of the train taking in the amazing view. The sky was a light shade of pink and red giving the area a light happy look as if the world was at peace. Large gray clouds started to herd around each other and fly over the mountain tops that surrounded the city, Emile smiled at the sight, views like this almost never happened where he and his brother Ray lived before.

"Bored?" Emile asked trying to make conversation.

"Yeah, wish I had something to do" Ray leaned back in his chair.

"We only got a few more miles, so don't worry about it"

Emile thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the train coming to a screeching halt. "What the hell is going on?" He yelled out. Suddenly the train started to morph, the chairs turned bright blue and folded up into the walls, the windows moved like water and fused into each other like a bubble. Emile turned to his right and saw that his brother was gone as well as the other passengers.

Emile got out his seat and stared at the room he was in, everything was a shade of blue and purple, the floor below him was covered in hazy fog. Emile placed a hand on the wall next to him and leaned to the side, he had no idea what was going on right now. "Maybe this is a dream?" He thought to himself, Emile looked ahead and saw several shady figures in the distances, two resembled Ray and Emile.

* * *

Emile jolted out his seat and onto the cold steel floor of the train. "uh Emile you okay?" Ray asked, Emile looked around in confusion.

"Where did everything go?" Emile said pushing himself off the ground, Ray raised an eyebrow.

"Nowhere, you sure you okay?" Emile sat back down in his seat.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine" Emile leaned on the window pane next to him "what happened back there?" Emile whispered as he drifted off into a slumber"

* * *

The train eventually pulled into the train station, the two boys got out the train and examined their surroundings. The sky was a dark purple, giving a somber tone to the Earth below it. The clouds that swirled over head were now gone, allowing the two brothers to see the illuminated sky. Ray checked over the station which looked like it was there since the town was founded, the benches were rusting at the legs and the wood was falling apart. The over head lights that brightened the area were starting to dim, letting the two brothers know that they had to rush to their grandmothers home. "Damn it's getting late, let's hurry up" Emile said impatiently.

"Calm down little bro, we've got plenty of time" Ray retorted chuckling.

"Alright then, hope you like getting mugged!" Emile took off in a dash leaving his older brother behind.

"Hey I was just trying to calm your nerves wait up!' Ray took off after his brother leaving the dim rusty station behind.

The two dark haired brothers had finally reached their destination, a red wooden home with two dainty windows. "A bit run down for grandma eh?" Ray asked taking a step towards the house.

"I guess" Emile mused, entered the house with the key that was left under the welcome home rug. Emile switched the light next to him on and sat his luggage down. The wallpaper inside was a warm shade of purple.

"Is that you Emile?" a voice rang from up stairs.

"Yeah it's me"

"Well don't stay down there, come upstairs!" the voice said, the two boys shrugged and followed the voice to greet their grandmother. She had black hair, now graying due to her old age, emerald green eyes, and wore a purple blouse.

"Ma!" Ray shouted as he fell into her arms for hug.

"I'm so glad to see you two again." she pulled away from Ray and hugged Emile "I would catch up with you boys, but it's getting late." She opened a door next to her. "I was working on your room, hope you like it." she smiled and walked down stairs to catch some sleep. The two boys entered the room and looked around, it was small and cramped with two beds and a small desk sitting off to the side.

"Smaller than the one in Paris." Ray said with a sigh, Emile shrugged and took a seat on the edge of his bed.

"Eh, we'll adapt." he laid down and closed his eyes, Ray said nothing and flopped down onto his bed closing his eyes. Let's hope nothing bad happens to us this year Emile thought before drifting off to sleep.


	2. The Whiz and the Giant

The Whiz and the Giant

Emile opened his eyes to the sight of velvet blue. He looked around the strange room he was in, its shape resembling the train he rode into Springfield, in fact the room was the exact same shape as the train from his dream. He got up from his chair and inspected the room closer. The entire carriage and its possessions were emitting various shades of blue and dark purple. He looked down at his feet and noticed that the cold train floor was replaced with fuzzy blue carpeting. To his side was an array of wines and Victorian style books, stacked neatly and elegantly on a shelf. Suddenly a force pushed him back into the chair he was sitting in earlier and a man with bloodshot eyes and an extremely long nose appeared in front of him.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room. My name is Igor. It is a pleasure to meet you." Igor gave a friendly yet unsettling smile to Emile.

"Why am I here?" Emile asked nervously.

"You are here because you hold the potential within you." Igor produced a small blue card with the image of a man and a dog on the edge of a cliff, the man had a small bag tied to a stick slung over his shoulder. "It is my job to help you utilize that potential and shape your destiny."

"So you're going to guide me to the path of good or something?" Emile tilted his head in confusion as Igor chuckled in response.

"Yes, but you do not have to travel town that road if you do not wish" Igor picked the card he summoned earlier off the table he was sitting behind and showed it to Emile. "This card, the Fool, is much like the number zero. It is empty at first, but holds an infinite amount of potential."

"What does this have to do with me?" Emile cut into Igor's monologue. Igor eyes widened and returned to normal in a matter of seconds, he was taken aback by Emile's brash nature. He chuckled again.

"Nothing. This has nothing to do with you." Igor snapped his fingers and the card disappeared. Things then began to fade out of view as if the train was moving away from Emile, except he was completely still.

* * *

Emile opened his eyes to a flood of light and the sight of his blue wool covers. He removed the covers from his face and turned over to the side where Ray had just woken from his sleep.

"More weird dreams?" He sat up and took his phone out his luggage bag. "5:00am" He flopped back down onto his soft white pillow.

"This time I don't think that was a dream, it seemed too real."

* * *

Emile and Ray walked out the door of their house after saying goodbye to their grandmother and headed off to school. For the first time since they got here, Emile took notice of his surroundings. The city was filled with a number of low lying apartment buildings and houses. He took note of the various corner stores and shopping malls at every corner they passed, surprised to see so many of them in walking distance from one another.

The two walked pass a small play ground before hitting Main Street, a long stretch of road that ended at a four way intersection. To the sides of Main Street were several stores connected together.

The two after a long walk finally reached the Springfield High. The school was large and took up the entire plot of grass it was founded on. The outside of the school was red and a large American flag flowed gallantly in the wind from its perch on a pole. The main part of the school was small compared to the massive red buildings connected to it, which probably housed freshmen wing and senior wing.

Emile studied the school while Ray whistled in amazement.

"Damn this place was bigger than I expected, kind of like a mini castle when you think about it huh?" Ray looked over at his brother who was sketching the school in a black note pad he brought with him.

"Let's just hope we can stay here long enough to get use to this place," Emile muttered. Ray rubbed his arm in irritation at his brother's nonchalant attitude.

"Dude could you show some emotion for once?" Ray growled as Emile furrowed his eyebrows.

"I do-" he was pushed out the way by a tall dark haired girl wearing a dark black shirt. Neither brother could get a good look at the girl as she walked away from them, muttering in anger.

"Whatever, I'm heading off." Ray stormed pass Emile and walked over to the freshmen wing.

"Hell is your problem!?" Emile asked no one in particular as he picked his sketch pad off the ground. He wiped the grass of the pad and stashed it into his bag. Emile could show emotion, but he never felt comfortable doing so in front of other people.

* * *

Emile walked into the freshmen wing and down the brown halls looking at the billboards filled with announcements and sports events, none of which interested Emile, who was focused on finding his home room.

Emile eventually reached his destination, the computer lab. He peeked inside to see that there were only five students in the entire room. He opened the door and took a seat, ignoring the strange looks the others shot him. He placed his bag down at his feet and prepared his books. As he was doing that, the door to the class opened again. A balding man with a dress shirt and brown pants walked in, followed by a 17 year old girl with short black hair that curled around her ears. She had blue owl like glasses to compliment her striking green eyes. A dark purple school jacket was wrapped around her tiny waist and a grey handbag was hanging over her thin arms.

"Hello students I'm Mr. Kirk and this girl here is Carly Cross. She has been transferred to this school from Oak Wood." Carly blushed as all the attention in the room was firmly on her. "Treat her as you yourselves would want to be treated, understood?" Everyone but Emile replied with a sarcastic yes, he couldn't form a coherent sentence because of the girl in front of him.

Emile remembered seeing her from the dream, the one he had on the train. Her figure matched one of the people he saw, but what the hell does this mean? He couldn't take his eyes off the girl as she took seat next to a green haired boy.

* * *

After class Ray and Emile met up in the hallways and talked about their homeroom. "Meet any cute chicks?" Ray asked leaning on a wall.

"I guess you could call her cute if you were into nerdy girls," Emile shrugged.

"I'm into all types of girls!" Ray replied smiling.

"I figured that one out a long time ago," Emile sighed. The two continued to talk all the way to the lunch room, where they took a seat at circular glass table.

"Oh, I forgot to mention earlier. I met this guy in Math, and he hates it just as much as I do. I invited him to sit with us. You don't mind right?" Ray told Emile leaning back in his seat.

"Sure I guess." Emile pulled his sketch book out again and continued his drawing of the school, this time entirely through memory. He stopped when a hulking brute of a teenager took a seat at their table. The boy had brown hair which spiked upwards like a mountain. Instead of the school uniform, he wore a long sleeved brown shirt and brown pants. His eyes were a maroon shade of brown and he had red head phones around his neck.

"Hey Ray," he looked over in Emile's direction. "Hey guy, I've never met before," the boy proclaimed with a cheeky smile.

"Nice to meet you I guess," Emile shrugged and continued penciling his artwork as the brown eyed boy raised an eyebrow.

"Is he always so aloof?" The boy asked Ray.

"Yeah..." Ray rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

* * *

**Authors Note: I'm guessing any previous readers of the story will have noticed that this chapter is vastly different from its original version, that's because this story is a proper revision of a New Beginning. As such, expect the characters to have different personalities and different goals.**


	3. Project Perfection

Project: Perfection

Emile, Ray, and Shaun, the brown-haired boy from before, were sitting at their wooden desks taking notes in Science class. The class was silent for the most part, though whispers and murmurs of talk were common. Emile however wasn't concerned with the rumors and talk around him. He was more worried about that girl he met and his dreams. He figured his best bet was to talk to her and try to get some more information on her. After class Emile was quick to rush past his brother and Shaun and head straight to Carly's locker, there was just one problem with that, how would he find out where her locker was exactly?

"Hey Ray."

"Yeah."

"That girl I was talking about, you wouldn't happen to know where her locker is would you?"

"Uh...maybe."

"So you wouldn't mind, you know, telling me where it is would you?"

"Not really no, it's locker 127."

"Isn't that near the girl's bathroom?"

"..."

* * *

After that relatively creepy exchange Emile stopped in front of Carly's locker and coughed to draw her attention from her belongings and over to him. Carly looked over at him and raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Can I help you?" Her voice was soft and airy, almost like music to Emile's ears. Her voice reminded him of his old girlfriend, but thinking about her always brought up bad memories. His daydreaming was intruppted by the sound of Carly impatiently tapping her foot.

"Uh yes…I was wondering if you've ever…" he paused to articulate the thoughts buzzing around in his head "...seen me before?" He nervously fiddled with the lint in his pockets.

"No I don't believe I have." She pushed her glasses up and looked over at Emile again. "Oh wait! You're the boy from Mr. Kirk's class right?" Emile nodded. A slight, delicate smile started to form on Carly's face. "You were the only one who didn't bother me that afternoon after class." she closed her locker and pulled her handbag over her shoulders. "Thanks for that." Blushing, she turned her back to Emile and started to walk away.

"Wait!" He turned around to look at Carly. "You wanna talk after school?" he asked nervously.

"Um s-sure." she was about to walk up stairs, when she remembered something, "can we go to the somewhere else first? I need to do something."

* * *

The two students entered the cold library together, the library was a large room filled with two bookshelves off in a corner of the room.

The most impressive part about the room was the giant bookshelf that circled around and stopped at the giant red 'EXIT' side in front of them. Emile looked around in awe and Carly was rendered speechless.

"I didn't know that this place was this huge!" she exclaimed.

"Me neither." Emile walked over to the circler book shelf and pulled out various hardcover books. The glossy books shone in the light, bathing the room in a majestic air. "I never thought I'd ever see a place like this." He put the book back in the shelf and walked back over to where Carly was sitting. He popped his notebook open and began to sketch the library.

"You draw?" Carly blurted out. Emile nodded and continued to work on his sketch.

"I guess everyone's got something special about them." She peeked over his drawing and noticed the amazing amount of detail put into the artwork. After the two finished they hopped on a computer and browsed the web.

"When I said you wanna go somewhere, I meant outside." Emile joked.

"I know but there's something I've got to do here." She tapped away at her keys opening various programs and source codes. Emile looked over all this in amusement. It was almost as if she was a hacker in the Matrix.

"Done." she muttered before hitting one last key. Suddenly, the computer started to beep and whir.

"What's going on?!" Emile yelled. Carly shrugged in confusion at the computer's strange antics.

"All I did was try to fix a virus that was infecting school computers. I didn't think this would happen." she replied back. Emile noticed that the computer was producing a suction cup effect, it was slowly pulling the both of them into the computer. Doing his best to stop the effect, he jumped out of his seat and grabbed Carly's sleeve.

* * *

Carly tried to open her eyes but they were forced shut by a bright light in front of her. She gasped and shot up from her spot on the floor. No longer facing the strong light source, she opened her eyelids and scanned her eyelids over her surroundings. The library was gone, replaced with a glowing white utopia of sorts. The place she was in consisted of large white towers with spikes jaggedly sticking out of them. Some spikes were impaling the nearby buildings, while others spiraled around the buildings they were produced from. Several slabs of blue stone flew aimlessly around the building, some whizzed at super-fast speeds past Carly, while others slowed down to a drawl in front of her.

Carly picked up her glasses and put them back on before walking over to the edge of the slab she was on. She peered over the edge and was greeted to the sight of electrical wires pulsing with blue energy.

"Whoa, this place is amazing." Emile groaned and looked over to Carly, who was studying the various workings of their unfamiliar surroundings.

"What's going on?" Emile asked rubbing his head in pain.

"I don't know. We somehow ended up here after what happened back at the library."

"So how do we get out?" Emile rested on one knee before standing up.

"Don't know that one either." She sat on the edge of the slab and watched the wires below it, "I figure we'll get out soon enough." she pushed her glasses further up the bridge of her nose.

"Guess we could sit here and talk till something happens." Emile said taking a seat next to Carly.

* * *

"So why'd you transfer here instead of one of those fancy schools up north?" Emile asked. The two had talked for what felt like a few hours atleast.

"Those schools all went bankrupt." She smiled "places like that always try to cover up how poor they are by buying more fancy tech or shiny new equipment." Her smile turned into a frown "just like some others I know." Emile gave her a sympathetic look.

"I know how you feel." She raised an eyebrow.

"My-" the stone slab they were sitting on was suddenly blown out the sky. The two grabbed on the edge as they twirled out the sky and towards a short tower. With an incredible amount of force, the slab burst through the faux glass of the tower and into a desk. The two were thrown off the slab and into a hallway inside of the tower before numerous rocks fell on top of them.

"You okay!?" Emile yelled in with concern.

"Yeah, I think so." She forced herself up off the floor and out of the pile of rubble they were stuck under and into the door frame. Emile crawled out after her and looked around for any signs of someone else. After he was sure there was no one else around, he walked over to Carly. With a grunt, he helped her up of the floor and onto her feet. Just as she stood up however, Carly yelped as she fell to the floor in pain. He looked down at her foot to see a deep, bloody gash cut on her heel.

"Shit!" Emile using some nearby rebar he cut a piece of his shirt off and wrapped it around the cut to stop the bleeding.

"Emile… what's going on?" she tiredly asked. Emile knew from how pale her skin was getting that she was losing blood fast and leaving the wound would prove to be fatal. He turned around to find some way out when a blast of blue light tore through the rest of the building and knocked various amounts of debris into the hallway they were situated in. As several flames sparked due to the blast, Emile prepared for the worst and picked up some rebar, ready to defend him and Carly at any cost.

Through the smoke, Emile could make out a shadowy figure with long, Wolverine-like claws and glowing purple eyes. The large slender creature, with a purple wire frame body, stepped through the smoke with a growl. The monster's claws were a dark shadow of purple that emitted a sinister looking glow. The creature's face was a round blue mask stuck in a perpetual frown.

"You're not killing either one of us today." Emile pointed the rebar at the monster ready for any of the tricks it might pull on him. The two made no move to attack and stared each other down, with Emile's face reflecting determination along with a slight hint of fear with the thought of him and Carly dying. A slight piece of dust drifted into Emile's eye causing him closed in and try to rub away the speck. Seeing the opening the monster ran at Emile lifting its claws overhead, ready to land the killing blow. Just as the monster had almost finished closing the distance, time seemed to dramatically slow down for Emile. The drool from the monster almost completely froze mid-fall, mixing with the partials of dust and small ambers as it hung in the air.

"**I am thou**." Emile heard a voice in his head, "**if you wish to harness my power, sacrifice what you hold dear**." 'What you hold dear' could only mean one of two things, Ray or Emile's notepad filled with all of his drawings. With Ray not being able to be sacrificed, seeing that he wasn't with Emile, his notepad had to be the sacrifice, not that Emile would have it any other way. He pulled his notepad out of his book bag and stared at it. With a sigh of both anger and sadness, he ripped the pad in half and discarded the torn pages. The remains of the pad produced a bright blue aura, which spilled from the pages and flowed over his body. The aura surged violently, spitting blue embers off Emile's body and burning through the walls and rubble around him.

"**Per-so-na."** The aura around him got even more violent. Things began to return back to their normal speed, allowing Emile to see among his rage that the monster was thrown back. The aura stopped its rampage and began to circle around Emile forming a blue spiral before shooting into the air. The spiral threw dust and debris in all directions, obstructing Carly and Emile. The dust subsided, revealing a tall, heavily tanned man with various tattoos across his shirtless body.

The tattoos strangely had several figures that resembled Ray, Shaun and Carly, along with another pink haired girl who Emile didn't recognize. The man also had long flowing sliver wings on his back, giving off an angel-like light which blinded Emile and the monster. The strangest feature the man had, was his bird like face. The feathers around his face were white with a few blue streaks resembling Emile's hoodie. "**I am thou, thou aren't thy, I am Horus god of the sky and holder of the Sun and Moon!"**


	4. Project Perfection pt2

Project: Perfection pt2

Emile and Horus intensely stared down the monster in front of them, Emile tightened his grip on the rebar. He didn't notice just how heavy the rusty steel bar was until he tried to point it at the monster in front of him. The monster slowly started to grind its long claws against each other, sending numerous bright sparks into the air.

"Horus, take that thing down!" Horus gave an earnest caw and aimed his ruby tipped staff at the monster. The ruby started to emit a strong red light, effectively blinding both Emile and the monster. The light eventually faded to reveal a small flick of a flame at the end of Horus' staff held in his left hand. The flame danced around on the staff before growing to the size of a baseball. Thrusting his staff forward, Horus let the fire fly off the staff and into the monster. Upon contact, the monster screamed in pain as its flesh was seared from its body and flaked off into ash. Emile watched in horror as the monster began to burn until there was nothing left put a pile of black goop.

Emile looked up at Hours as the bird-faced man silently kept its stony glare ahead, watching out for any other monsters with his spear in his right hand. He tried to say something to Horus, but couldn't utter word as a sudden burst of pain forced him onto his knees. The pain started at his legs and traveled up his body until it reached his heart. The pain became almost unbearable, his vision got hazy as he fell to the floor and passed out.

* * *

Emile slowly started to return to his senses. Even though he was barely even conscious, he could still smell the expensive wine of the Velvet Room.

"Welcome back Master Emile." Once again Emile was sitting behind a blue table in front of Igor.

"How'd I get back here? Where's Carly?"

"Worry not. She is resting safely back in your realm." With a snap of his fingers, Igor produced the image of Carly sleeping in the school infirmary. The bed next to her was held Emile, some bandages wrapped around his chest and arm.

"How am I in two places at once?"

"Think of the Velvet Room as a safe haven. If you are ever to become gravely injured, you will end up here." Once again Igor summoned the Fool card. "It seems that you have awakened your Persona… tell me, how does it feel?" Emile stared down at his hands.

"Great, actually." His lips curled into smile, Igor smiled back.

"Perfect. Now, shall I instruct you on how to properly use your Persona?"

"Sure."

"Now I believe I should inform you on Social Links." Igor snapped his fingers, and the images of Ray and Shaun took a spot near the image of Carly. "As of now your Persona is weak." Emile was ready to say something in protest. His Persona couldn't be weak. He had just taken that thing out in one hit. Igor chuckled at his expression, "fret not, for your Persona can get stronger in more ways than one. By bonding with the many people you meet in your journey, you can create even stronger Personae." Emile bit his lip at this.

"Journey? What kind of journey?"

"A journey I cannot tell you about, as I am forbidden from interfering in your life any further than guiding you on how to utilize your Powers. Now that I have informed you about Social Links, shall I move on to fusing Personae?"

"I guess..." With that Igor snapped his fingers calling someone from out of the shadows. The dark figure reveled herself to be a girl around Emile's age. She had light blonde bangs, almost to the point where it was more white than blonde. She wore a sweater that was a warm shade of blue and purple, along with the same color pants. The sweater had several golden buttons embedded inside of the soft fabric, complementing the long golden necklace wrapped around her slim neck. The small diamond pendant attached to the necklace glistened as Emile's eyes glanced over it.

The girl smiled at Emile, her smile radiated innocence and warmth. He didn't have time to ponder over what she may be like because Igor immediately started up the next topic of discussion. "Bella here will help create new Personae." Igor gestured to Bella, "she will take any Personae you have no use for and fuse it into an even stronger Persona…"

"Sounds good."

"…However those Personae will be of no use to you if you do not develop your Social Links. Which means for once you will need to open up to others. He had never felt comfortable with interacting with anyone aside from his brother, so Igor was really asking a lot from him. "Bella will also hold your old Personae for when you wish to use them again."

"I apologize for my master's chitchat. He sometimes forgets this may be hard to take in all at once." Bella chimed in.

"It's fine." Emile reassured her, somehow feeling more at ease in her presence. It almost felt as if he had known her before meeting her in this room.

"Well I think it's about time we cut this short, don't you agree Igor?" Bella turned to her master.

"Very well… next time we meet Emile, it will be of your own accord."

* * *

Emile forced his shut eyes open. He immediately regretted that since a blinding light was being flashed in his face from the open window blinds. He rolled over and put his back to the blinds, stopping the annoying sun light from stinging his eyes. After a few minutes to collects his thoughts about what happened back in the Velvet Room he pushed himself up off the bed.

Still feeling the effects of the fight, Emile limped over to Carly's bed and opened the curtains. She was sound asleep, snoring even, as if the earlier encounter they had before had never happened. After checking up on her, he grabbed his things and made his way back home to rest up a bit more. His shirt seemed to be new, since the rip in it was gone.

"Good to see your alright." Emile practically snapped his head looking over to the nurse sitting in her swivel chair, "They found you to passed out near the computer with your shirt ripped up, I gave you a new one however." Emile thanked her and made his way out the door.

On his way out the door he noticed Shaun sitting on the steps outside the school, Emile could tell from how quiet he was that he was currently absorbed in music blasting out from his head phones.

"I know you're there." Emile sighed and walked over to Shaun, taking a seat next to him and leaning on the guard rail beside him.

"Sorry, I didn't want to bug you."

"It's cool." Shaun slipped the red colored phones off his head and around his neck, "your brother was bitching out about you earlier." Emile let out a big hearty laugh that rolled out his throat like thunder, something he didn't usually do in the presence of others.

"He does that a lot." Emile studied Shaun's face, which reflected deep thought, "you okay?"

"Not really. Some stuff happened yesterday at home, but I really don't want to talk about it."

"I'll leave if you want me to."

"Nah it's cool. As much as I don't want to talk about it, talking to someone else is helping me get over it."

"Glad to be of service." Emile grinned while a small smirk appeared on Shaun's face as well.

"I got to go," Shaun gathered his things and walked away, "peace out man." Strangely enough, time felt as though it has frozen.

"I am thou, thou aren't thy, you have opened the Magician social link"

* * *

Social Links:

Magician


	5. The Art Of War

The Art of War

Ray and Emile walked to school in silence like usual, though something was bothering Ray, "how'd you guys pass out in the infirmary." Emile stopped and looked at him like he was crazy.

"What are you talking about?"

"You and that girl you told me about before. How'd you guys end up passed out in the library."

"It's a long story actually."

* * *

Carly gazed at her rusty gray locker with contempt. She didn't want to run into Emile, not after what she saw the other day. Her thoughts raced back to the fight in the computer world, remembering the bird-faced man holding a spear and staff in either hand. She felt a shiver down her spine and wrapped her arms around herself as she recalled the feeling of fear she had while seeing the clawed monster get obliterated in a ball of fire. She hesitantly began to calm herself down, taking deep breaths and repeating her safety mantra in her head. "It's going to be okay...it's going...to be okay."

"Hey Carly!" She turned her head towards the voice, seeing a smiling Emile walk towards her. As Carly blinked, Emile's face warped into that of a bird. As the face approached her, its sharp beak and glassy gaze caused Carly to freak out. She shrieked and slammed her back on the locker and slid to the ground in fear. Emile's smile was snatched off his face.

"Carly" Emile broke into a sprint and bent over Carly. She screamed again and pushed him to the ground, causing Emile to hit his head as he fell. She picked herself off the ground and burst into a run, pushing though several people who had started to gather around the commotion. Emile rubbed his head in pain as his brother offered him a hand to help him up.

"Dude wh-" Emile smacked Ray's hands of him and chased after her. He could see her frame running down the halls, but remained out of reach until she ran out into school garden. She hunched over a small plant and fell to her knees, crying. Emile caught up to her and kneeled next to her.

"Ca-"

"Stop! Get away from me." She pushed him back and curled up in a ball.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"I don't know what you are!" Emile furrowed his eyebrows.

"What!?"

"You killed that thing that attacked me, and you summoned that monster." Emile was at a loss for words, he slowly began connecting the dots to what Carly was talking about.

"My Persona! That's not a monster you have one too Carly." She gave him a horrified look.

"Look I'll show you, all we have to do is get my brother and go back there."

"You crazy? We might die there."

"I can protect you guys, promise." Carly sighed, but complied with his request with small a nod, what did she really have to lose? Besides her life. The easy part was done, now he just had to convince Ray to come with him.

* * *

"Sure I'll go." Emile and Carly jumped back in surprise at Ray's enthusiasm.

"You sure? I mean those Shadows are vicious."

"Well if I go I can get a cool Persona like you right? Or at least if what you've told me is true." Carly and Emile exchanged looks.

* * *

Emile and Carly, along with Ray and Shaun, who agreed to come with them out of curiosity, walked into the library. Ray and Shaun began to wander around while checking out the workings of the library, impressed by the elegance of the room. Meanwhile, Emile and Carly were sitting around the computer. Emile awkwardly darted his eyes between his brother, who was checking out the comic section, and Carly, who was focusing on her work instead of him. He wanted to say something, to reassure her that he and his Persona wouldn't do any harm to her.

Carly's thoughts were more panicky. She was worried, unsure if she was able to trust Emile to stay in control of his Persona. She pushed the thought of the bird-faced man going berserk to the back of her mind as she successfully recreated the circumstance from before.

"It's working!" Shaun and Ray, hearing this crowned around the two.

"Uh Carls is this sa-" a blinding white light flashed before everyone's eyes as they felt themselves getting sucked into the computer.

* * *

A pulse was the only thing he could feel at this moment, his own heartbeat pounding at a steady pace. Shaun ran his hands in a circle, looking for his friends or any hint of them being alive, but there was nothing. Disappointed and shocked, he pushed himself off the floor and onto his knees. He opened his eyes and examined the area around him.

Strange blue stone slabs flying freely through the air, at various speeds. He also noticed that he was stuck in a bright blue tower with large spikes wildly sticking out in every direction.

Shaun felt a hand on his shoulder. He whipped around and threw his fist up in a boxing stance, ready to take his suspected attacker. Seeing that the hand belonged to Ray, who had Carly standing beside him, Shaun lowered his arms.

"Yo!" Ray chirped.

"Hell do you mean 'yo'? Can't you see we're trapped here with this shit?" Shaun pointed his finger at the slabs flying through the air. Ray took a step back.

"Well Carly and Emile got use to this place after a few minutes so I assumed we would too."

"Yes but we were unaware about how long we were really here for." Carly put a hand on her chin and began to think. "If I were to make a guess, time flows differently here than it does in the real world."

"Yeah that would make sense" Ray replied. Suddenly, a worried look painted across his face. "Wait… where is Emile?" the three stopped when they heard a mixture of a roar and a scream of anguish. They turned to one of the slow flying slabs to see Emile and his Persona fighting. The three watched in shock as the monster stabbed Emile in his arm. He fought back a scream and ducked under the next attack.

"Shit, that's bad." With no consideration for himself Shaun leaped from the tower and onto to another slow-flying slab. He steadied himself as the slab buckled under his weight. "Emile, move out the way!" He leaped off the slab again and held his arms out, hoping to grab hold of the edge. His hands barely even scratched the surface as the confident expression on his face turned to a panicked one. Emile instinctively reached out to Shaun in hopes that he could grab his hand, but it was too late. His hands feebly touched the tips of Shaun's fingers as he slipped away. Carly and Ray watched in horror as Shaun went flying down to the abyss below them.

"No!" Carly wailed as Shaun continued to fall to his doom. It was then that she noticed the glowing blue aura around her. It started of weak, but slowly it grew into a volcano of energy.

**"I am thou,"** a female voice rang out in her head, **"if you wish to harness my powers, sacrifice what you hold dear."** Carly curled her fingers around the handbag around her shoulders, the only thing she had ever had that had any meaning to her. With a roar of anger she launched the bag out her hands and into the air. The bag shattered into thousands of pieces of glass, which slowly started to merge together to form Carly's Persona. It was a beautiful blue skinned woman holding a long, stringed veeta. Around the woman's shoulders was a curved sword, with an engraving that read 'Carly' in cursive print. The woman had long flowing black hair, and wore a green tunic that draped around her whole body. Her entire person was levitating as if the laws of gravity did not apply to her.

**"I am thou, thou aren't thy. I am Saravasti, goddess of wisdom and the arts."**

Saravasti flew towards Shaun and grabbed him before he could hit the ground. After returning to set him down at Ray's feet, she and turned to the shadow.

"Garu!" Carly yelled. Saravasti complied and strung her veeta producing a soothing sound. The sound continued to echo and soon became more rugged and violent, almost like the sounds of a hurricane. The winds started to slash at everyone but Carly and became increasingly violet to the point where it threw Ray and Shaun off their feet. Then the direction of the forceful winds directed itself towards the shadow attacking Emile.

The sheer amount of power tore off the shadow's arms, blasting them off the torso with an incredible amount of speed. The shadow yelled in pain as it squirted black ooze from the giant holes in its body. The winds went on to pick up the armless shadow, holding it into the air. The wind began cutting off every single bit of the remains of the monster, as if a blender was shredding the monster into tiny pieces. The hurricane slowed down until there was nothing left but black sludge. Carly's face, which was one of pure rage, slowly started to soften. Realizing what she had done to the shadow, Carly collapsed to the floor a sobbing mess.

Ray and Shaun looked at the ooze with grimace, questioning what that being was that tore that monster apart. Emile however was not shocked at all. He leaped from the slab and flew to Carly's crying body with the assistance of Horus.

"I'm sorry, I shoul-" a swift fist to the face from Shaun is what followed.

"What the fuck!?" Shaun tried to grab his collar but he was pushed back by Horus. Horus glared at him, sending a very clear message of what would happen if he continued to attack his master. Shaun, though intimated, glared back at Horus. Their feud was cut short by the sound of creaking metal and shattering glass. Ray looked back at the building in fear.

"Guys the wind made the building weak it's about to fall!" Ray tried to run, but tripped and fell on his face. Shaun looked back at the building with contempt, a blue aura radiating from his body.

**"I am thou, if you wish to harness my power, sacrifice what you hold dear."** Shaun complied and pulled his head phones from around his neck and threw them to the floor. He stomped them into red pieces until they transformed into shards of glass. The glass rotated around Shaun's body until they stopped in front of the fallen Ray. The glass started to form the body of a rugged blue skinned man. The physical structure resembled that of a wrestler without a shirt. He only wore a pair of trunks, torn at the ends of his pants legs. The man had a chain metal mask around his face with a hole in the back, allowing his long white hair to flow freely. The most striking feature of the man was the large globe resembling Earth on his back.

"**I am thou, thou aren't thy. I am Atlas, holder of the Earth."** Throwing the Earth to his side, he jumped beneath the building and held it using his massive amount of strength. He then threw the building into the air. Atlas swiftly floated back down to the ground. Shaun looked over at his Persona with a smile, now he had one too.

* * *

Social Links:

Magician


	6. A Day Off

A Day Off

Emile sat in silence behind the desk in his room. His mind was racing back and forth between the events which happened on Thursday. He felt guilty for putting everyone in so much trouble, and angry at himself for not being able to properly protect them. Shaun refused to talk to him and it bothered Emile that Carly and Ray may not trust him either. Sighing, he hunched over his desk and rested his chin on his arms, staring at the blinking lights of the computer monitor. He looked at the time and date on the bottom right corner of the screen, 5:00pm, October 4. Saturday.

"Wow October got here fast huh?" He got out of his chair and stretched for a bit. He figured going outside would get rid of the millions of thoughts buzzing around his head. He walked down stairs and entered the kitchen. After skimming through the contents of the fridge, Emile let out another sigh. Nothing to eat unfortunately. The sound of footsteps alerted him to his grandmother's presence. She looked over him with a smile.

"You okay dear? Need something?" Emile smiled back.

"Yeah I could use something to eat, thought I don't want to bother you, sooo..."

"Nonsense! Sit down and let me cook you something good." After forcing him down, Emile's grandmother dashed around the kitchen taking out various cooking utensils and food. Emile smiled at her. He was going to looove this food!

* * *

Carly watched the colorful birds fly pass her window and into the trees that surrounded her large house. The image of Horus flashed before her eyes as she looked at the birds. What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she get the image of Horus and Saravasti destroying those monsters out her head? Maybe it was too painful for her to forget. After a few minutes of daydreaming, she realized her phone was beeping. Seeing the number of her cousin Jackie, she knew exactly what was going to happen today.

"Man I thought they called that off." She sighed and prepared herself for the inevitable onslaught of drunken family members. Within minutes off receiving that text, what seemed like hundreds of family members burst through the doors of her large house and began setting up shop. She cringed when the overly loud base of Rap music assaulted her ears. Why oh why did they have to do this on her day off from school?

She considered walking up the stairs and sneaking out the house, but then she would inevitably have to deal with her sobered-up parents scolding her for not 'enjoying the family spirit.' She decided to suck it up and sit around in the living room and wait for everyone to pass out. What surprised her was the sight of her weary-eyed aunt taking a seat next to her.

"Enjoying the party dear?" the aunt asked.

"To be brutality honest… no, I'm not." She was expecting the aunt to scold her but she simply smiled.

"Just between you and me, I'm not enjoying it either. I've always hated all the noise this family makes." Carly was shocked. "You remind me of myself growing up, quiet, almost never talking during family events. It's refreshing to actually see someone else who doesn't get caught up in the family festivities. I'm sorry am I bothering you?"

"N-no, it's nice to be spending time with someone who understands me." after that eye opening experience they said nothing else that night, instead enjoying each other's company.

* * *

Shaun brushed his chestnut brown hair out of his eyes and continued flipping through the available channels on TV. Unlike Emile and Carly, was furious about what went down Thursday. He sat up from the end of the bed and crossed his legs in deep thought. If he had a 'Persona', the thing Atlas called himself, just what could he do with it? Could he save lives like a superhero? Kill all those creatures inside that other reality? He was shaken out of his deep thought by the sound of his room door slamming open. A man with harsh eyes and a metal briefcase in hand walked into the room and looked around in disgust.

"This place is a mess! Clean it up!"

"Later" Shaun answered, with as little emotion as possible.

"How about now?"

"How about you fuck off!?" that was the last straw for Shaun's dad. He lifted Shaun off his bed and threw him into the wall, the impact of the throw causing the pasty white wall to form a large crack.

"Learn some fucking manners next time or I'll do worse! Got it!?" Shaun could only nod because of the intense pain in his back. Shaun's dad sneered before walking out the room and into the hallway. Shaun coughed and coiled to the ground in pain, he looked up at the cracked ceiling.

"Why mom?" Shaun asked as vision became hazy, "Why didn't you take me with you?" his body finally gave up and passed out in protest of all the damage done to it by his dad.

* * *

The sun was gently setting over the horizon. The orange light, blended with the black clouds, painted a melancholy tone to the relatively blissful evening. The imagine was a particularly pleasing sight for Ray as he went outside and feed the strays that lived around the school. Ray's thoughts were less on what happened Thursday, but what Emile and the others would do with this new information.

Would they ever go back there again? The feeling of soft fur snapped him out of his heavy thoughts and back to the orange haired cat he was feeding.

"Sorry bout that little buddy." he rubbed the cat's soft fur and pulled some food for the gray haired cat approaching him. "Still don't know why anyone would abandon you guys..." a small kitten meowed in protest, "...and girls." he rubbed the kittens head and smiled.

A pink haired girl flaunted over to the hunched over Ray. She wore a long sleeved purple shirt, baring the printed image of a bear that was half black and half white, with a long red eye on its black half. Hanging from the girl's pinkish pants, was a lengthy, elegant looking key. The girl had pretty purple eyes, which Ray couldn't help but observe from the distance they were at.

"Um are you from around here?" the pink haired girl asked, Ray got up from the ravenous cats and gave her a big affable smile.

"A bit. I've been here for a few days. I know my way around though."

"Great! Could you help me find a corner store?" the girl inquired.

"Sure." the two then headed off for main-street leaving the cats behind with full bellies. Ray stopped outside the door frame of the store and watched as the excessively perky girl bounced around the store looking for food. After the girl purchased all her food they headed out to the park to sit down and chat.

"So uh, what's your name?" Ray asked as he watched the girl savagely bite through her sandwich and gulp down her juice.

"mmf." she swallowed and wiped her mouth clean, "Faith, nice to meetcha." she struck out her hand and gave a confident grin

"I'm uh...Ray..." he then watched in mock horror as she began destroy the chips in her plastic bag, "...And I think I'm in love." he voiced to himself.

* * *

Social Links

Magician


	7. Back to Basics

Back to Basics

School. Man he sure did hate school now. Shaun slammed his locker as he finished gathering his things. It was still better than being back at home, the downside was that he had to deal with Emile. Even though he was still mellowing out from what happened Thursday, he felt a bit bitter. In fact had the urge to run up to that bastard Emile and sock him in his smug face. Okay, maybe he wasn't as mellow as he thought, but he felt like he was in the right with this one.

He brushed pass some rough looking kids and made his way towards art class in a huff. He glared at the kids who looked at him in ire. Fuck this! He should just ditch and grab a bite to eat. A sharp pain cut through his arm. A growl thundered out his mouth as he threw his hand up, knocking the offending thing out the way and into the air. The offending object? A book, with a piece of paper haphazardly sticking out the front of it. Shaun watched as a girl with pink hair fell to the ground. The book somersaulted in the air for what felt like an age before landing next to the petite girl. Shaun blinked in confusion, then repulsion at what happened.

"S-sorry" he murmured, to deaf ears evidently.

"Where the hell to you get off huh!" the girl jumped up and thrust Shaun back into locker, "You think it's cool to just push around small girls!?"

"W-what?" Shaun shook his head, "no I don't, I was angry okay."

"Whatever just don't take your roid rage out on me dumbass!"

"Roid rage!?"

* * *

Ray could hear the sounds of Faith and Shaun's argument from the other end of the hallway. He walked pass several laughing students and the flashing lights of countless phones taking pictures. He walked over to a particularly large group of students clustered around the two familiar faces. He grinned and leaned on the beige wall next to him, observing the two hot heads.

"As amusing as this is I better break it up." Faith glanced at a Ray for a brief second before recognising him.

"Ray!" She bounced over to him and pulled him into a deep embrace. "Beat this guy up for me, will you~" she pointed her finger at Shaun like a small girl telling on her brother Shaun raised an eyebrow at him.

"You know this hyperactive moron?"

"Yeah she's a bit..." he looked down and the pink haired girl clutching onto his pants leg "...crazy, forget her, Emile said he wants to meet us in the library today." Shaun scoffed at this.

* * *

He finally built up the courage to talk to them again. His palms became drenched with sweat as he stood in front of the door to the library, worried that first thing to come through the door would be Shaun's closed fist flying towards his face. His hand gripped and slightly twisted the shiny golden doorknob, emitting an creaking sound that pierced his ear drums. casting his fear aside, he threw the door open. Ray,who was asleep in his chair, jumped up out his seat at the sound of the noise. Shaun kept his eyes on Emile as he walked over to an empty seat while Carly continued to look down at the fuzzy carpeting.

"Uh, how's it been?" No one responded. Emile could almost feel the silence start to rest heavily on his laid out a small notepad that he stashed in his pocket, written on the notepad were several important details he wrote in homeroom. " Let me get some things out the way. As Ray can attest I'm not good with people, so I'm going to say this as best as I can." he took a breath. "I'm sorry about what happened last time we went in, I was too confident in my skills and it almost got you guys killed." Shaun's raised an eyebrow at Emile's apology. Carly looked up and Ray got back in his chair eager to hear what his brother had to say next, "Now here is the part where you guys kill me." he sighed, "I think we should fight the shadows which means we have to go back."

"Count me out." Shaun pushed his chair in and headed for the door.

"Aren't you a bit curious about that world?" Shaun stopped and looked back at the Emile, "Why is it there? Who built it?"

"No." Shaun set his hand on the door knob.

"I think we should make a team." Carly expressed, uttering her first words this entire conversation. "Everyone has a Persona right? If that's true than making a team of people like us would be a good way to fight back." She brushed her black hair out the way of her glasses. "I'm still scared, but whatever those things are, they can't be good." Shaun thought this over. Fighting the shadows and finding out what that place was would put them at ease, but he was still worried.

"Alright then Emile, make me a promise. Promise me that no matter what happens all of us come back alive at the end of all this." Emile looked over at his brother and Carly who's eyes were fixated on him. Could he really be trusted to bring everyone back alive at the end of their fights?

"I promise." his voice quivered.

"Good." he walked back over to his three friends, "Now what's our plan of action?" before Emile could slip out a word time froze.

**"Thou aren't thy, thy are thou, you have opened the Fool social link, your bond is weak."**

* * *

After the exchange in the library, the group headed to the cafeteria. They sat down with their food and ate in an awkward silence. While the group had recently went through a near-death experience together, they never spent much time talking to each other as a group.

Emile looked over his friends and began to think of a subject. He was going to speak but Ray beat him to the punch. "So what you guys do over the summer? Emmy here stayed inside all day." Carly snickered.

"Emmy?" she said holding back laughter.

"It's what are mom use to call him." Shaun joined in on the laughter.

"You're never living this down." he said in between chuckles, Carly couldn't hold back her laughs either and started joining in. Emile blushed.

"Hey! This isn't funny you guys." he hung his head down in shame as the two continued laughing at his expense.

"At least we're talking." he whispered.

"So you heard about that field trip coming up?" Carly asked after everyone finished laughing.

"To Inaba right?" Ray responded.

"But that's the place all those murder cases happened! And that Adachi guy who did it just got out of jail a few months back." Shaun leaned back in his chair, "I don't wanna end up dead."

"I'm sure we'll be fine." Carly retorted pushing her glasses back up.

"Wonder what kind of cute girls live in Inaba?" Ray put his hand on his chin.

"Not surprised that you're talking about girls." Emile spoke up, "Speaking of which, here comes that girl from the first day of school." Emile pointed over to a girl who had her long black hair in a ponytail. The girl wore a yellow shirt that ended at her midriff, her pants were a colder shade of yellow and from up close you could see the blue streaks in her hair. A small pink band was also visible, wrapped around her wrist.

"Man she's hot." Ray wolf whistled.

"Who? Cassandra? She's a bit..." Cassandra smacked a boy out her way "...awful"

"I don't think she's that mean, girls like her have a bit more to them." Emile said as he studied her moment.

"The day she joins will be a sad day for me." Carly replied jokingly.

"Indeed." Emile smiled, time froze once again.

**"Thou aren't thy, thy aren't thou, you have opened the Priestess social link, your bond is weak."**

* * *

Social Links

Fool, Bond: Weak

Shaun the Magician, Bond: Weak

Carly the Priestess, Bond: Weak


	8. The First Shadow Assault

The First Shadow Assault

A swish of wind blew Ray's short hair in front of his eyes. That swish of wind came from the black and white soccer ball flying past Ray. He quickly picked up the pace and chased after the ball, rolling towards two boys on the opposite team. A Cheshire grin planted itself on Ray's face as he sped past his teammates.

Time seemed to freeze for the boy as he avoided the legs of another player. He was almost there, all he needed was a bit more speed. And he would have had the ball if the sight of pink hair hadn't flooded his vision, Ray instantly melted as he watched Faith run past him and punt the ball into the goal. "She's so amazing." Ray muttered as he slowed down.

After soccer practice was over, Ray frowned as he watched the other players leave the field. It seemed like every time Faith comes around Ray becomes a hopeless romantic. He couldn't even think straight anymore, he couldn't look at the color pink or go a day without thinking about her beautiful face. He looked up at the gray clouds swarming over head ready to disperse some rain. Damn! Ray was hopeless when it came to love.

* * *

"Are you and Shaun starting to get along?" a curious Carly asked as she pushed her glasses up.

"Honestly, I have no idea" Emile replied as he sketched the image of Carly's laptop. Truthfully Emile disliked Shaun. Maybe it was his attitude or his tendency to use sarcasm in the most serious of situations. Carly scrunched her nose at his response. Unlike Shaun she wasn't reluctant to form the team.

"Well you guys better hate each other a little less. We'll be responsible for each other's lives remember?" Emile frowned. She was right he was team leader and he had to watch everyone's backs, even if he didn't favor their backs very much.

"I'm going to get a book." Emile sat his pad down at his feet and got out his chair. He wondered around the library picking out various books that looked interesting. Out the corner of his eyes he could see whitish hair, he turned to his side only to see nothing.

"Hello." a scream ricocheted through the library as Emile turned around to see Bella standing behind him.

"What are you doing here?"

"I've come here to 'hang out' as you humans say."

"With who?"

"You of course."

"Why?" Emile gingerly plucked a book sitting in the corner of a nearby shelf and opened it up.

"To be completely honest, Igor is quite tiresome to talk to. It's always Personas!, Personas!, Personas this and Social links!, Social links!, Social links that." Bella twisted her hair around her pale hands. "Still, I do live with him so I, of course, had to bring this." Bella held out her hands and dropped a velvet blue Ipod-like device in his hands.

"What this?"

"Something to help you fuse your Personas. Well I must get going now, until we meet again I guess." Bella ducked behind a bookshelf and disappeared in a white flash. Emile glanced at the Ipod and walked back to Carly. Things seemed to be getting weirder for him lately. While the concept of fighting Shadows wasn't that bad in retrospect, he still wondered the group would think of him if one of them died.

Was he really prepared to deal with those consequences? Pushing those concerns to the back of his head, Emile forced himself to think of another topic. His thoughts wondered to Carly. Truth be told, he didn't know much about the shy girl. From what he's seen of her she seemed nice enough but something nagged at him, as if Carly's hiding something from everyone. Well thinking about this was worse than the consequences of battle, "might as well worry if my mom's dead at this rate." He sat back down in his seat.

"I hate to bring up the Shadows while we're here but..." Carly turned her laptop to Emile "...I made a program designed to find them. I figured that it could come in handy later."

"Sounds good." Emile closed his book and stared at the various students walking around the library.

"What's up?" What Emile wanted to say was: 'I have no idea what's wrong with me, ever since I awakened my Persona everything about me has changed. I have all these worries and things I'm unsure of just eating at me and if I don't tell some soon I'll explode', but instead he said:

"Nothing. I'm just worried for the future." Carly gave him her biggest smile.

"If this helps than I'll be sure to worry for the future with you." A beep suddenly came from her blue and gray computer, interrupting the two's conversation. "Shadows? They're not suppose to be moving about. Let's check this out." the two got up and head for the door.

* * *

Ray's black boots causally slammed into the puddle of fresh rain water, launching the drop as high as knees. It was damp, cold, but Ray loved it. He always had an affinity for rain, it made the world look nicer.

A soft buzzing tickled his leg alerting him to a phone call. He reached into his pocket and checked the lit up screen.

Shadows.

He studied the phone for a bit. It would be unnecessary wouldn't it? He doesn't have a Persona, what good could he do? He scoffed at the phone and stuffed it deep into his pockets, he was hopeless.

* * *

Shaun sat with his arms crossed and watched Emile and Carly stare at the blinking computer screen in front of them.

"Alright, we can't wait any longer. Let's go." Emile announced.

"Good, it's been three weeks since our last battle."

* * *

Ray had finally made it to his destination. The rain that once dripped off his umbrella was now dripping down the sides at his feet. He closed up the umbrella and made his way inside his house, but one thing bothered him.

"That phone conversation...I hope Faith's alright." Ray wiped the rain off his phone screen as he checked his messages, man he was really hopeless.

* * *

**Author's Note: This chapter begins the first arc of the story. There will be a heavy emphasis on Ray and Faith, with a smudge of Emile and Carly thrown in as well. Next chapter will most likely be very action packed.**

**Social Links**

**Fool, Bond: Weak**

**Shaun the Magician, Bond: Weak**

**Carly the Priestess, Bond: Weak**


	9. Memories

Memories

The light swish of Emile's black katana cutting through a black blob that jumped at him was the only sound that could be heard for miles underneath the expansive buildings. His heart raced as he chopped through the slimy black glob that tried to melt away his arms. The shadows were wearing him down and he knew it, but nothing could stop him from cutting down the horde of shadows.

He could feel the sword's handle cutting into his olive hands as he continued to swing again and again. His back rubbed against Shaun's as he stepped back from the onslaught of shadows.

"How did you summon Horus the second time?" Shaun yelled over the groans of the drooling black blobs. Emile shrugged as he planted his sword in the face of a blob that was getting too close his foot. His hand darted into his pocket to pull out his piano black phone, the phone's outer shell chipped away piece by piece until it was replaced with the Fool tarot card.

A new Persona appeared from Emile's soul. The Persona was a tiny fairy with beautiful wings that had several swirls and spirals decorating the inside and outside of it. An elegant blue dress covered her tiny frame and complemented her blue eyes.

The rotating Earth that rested on Atlas' shoulders cast a gloomy shadow over his enemies. The beady red shadow eyes looked up in horror as Atlas' fist came down on the sea of shadows. Pixie picked the stragglers off by shooting small icicles that formed a thick layer of ice over the leftover shadows bodies. Taking advantage of the situation, Emile leaped from above and brought his katana down on the head of the last shadow, shattering it into millions of small icicles.

After hearing the battle die down, Carly came from around the corner clutching a flash drive in one hand and her crossbow in the other. Shaun crossed his arms and glared at the street behind Carly in contempt.

"What's up with the flash drive?" Emile inquired as he sheathed his sword and took a seat at the cybernetic curb. Emile's thoughts started to wander off onto the workings of this strange place. Last time they teleported in they landed on top of the skyscrapers that were orbited by the blue rocks.

Maybe if they could somehow slow down one of the rocks they could use them as transport.

"I found it here." She replied as she began to study the gray flash drive.

"We shouldn't stop for a break. We should keep hunting for any shadows that are still around." Shaun reprimanded.

"We know" Carly said looked at the flash drive a bit. The group left from the empty street and headed toward the source of shadow interference. The thick thuds of their shoes hitting the floor as they moved forward was quickly droned out as more shadows drew closer. Shaun could see the thick shadows that sat on the edge of the giant buildings accompanying their sides.

A slight breeze of wind rustled a stray hair into Shaun's eye and blinded him for a crucial moment.

A shadow took advantage of this.

A cloaked figure jumped from one of the tall buildings and produced a large Red sword from thin air. A terrifying shriek emitted from the shadow as it descended upon the distracted Shaun.

"Saravasti!" Carly cried as she unleashed an onslaught of arrows into the cloaked Shadow. The arrows did little to hurt the shadow and most likely annoyed it. Saravasti retaliated with a blast of wind that through the 'Strength' shadow back. Carly then ordered Saravasti to continue its assault and use her sword on the shadow.

This was a grave mistake.

An army of Strength shadows burst through the false glass of the buildings and sliced, stabbed and punched Saravasti in a barbaric manner. Carly fell to her knees and belted out a blood curdling scream as she felt the cold metal slice through her body.

Atlas began to punch and smash chunks of the shadows' bodies off in anger at this. Shaun shared the same anger as his Persona and punched and kicked at the army that attacked Carly, while Emile stayed back and consoled the screaming Carly.

Emile knew he needed a plan right now, so why was he sitting here staring down at an injured Carly and watching an angry Shaun smash up shadows? He grabbed bundles of his hair in frustration continue to watch Shaun try and repel the shadows to no avail.

"Giving up already?" Bella's harmonic voice questioned the panicked Emile. His eyes shifted to the formerly empty space next to him and he once again face to face with Bella. Instead of a girly scream, he said nothing and continued to stare at Shaun.

"None of the Wild Cards before you gave up this soon." After a few tense seconds Emile finally spoke.

"Maybe I shouldn't be a Wild Card then? This is the third time someone's almost died 'cause of me, no more." A soft crunch was that was barely audible caused Emile to look up, this crunch was the sound of Atlas' head being smashed to tiny blue fragments. Shaun grabbed his brown hair and rolled on the floor as a pounding headache ricochet through skull.

"Maybe instead of standing back while your friends' lives are in danger, you should lead them." In a flash of white Bella disappeared into thin air. The Strength shadows began to close in on the downed Shaun with their swords raised overhead.

"She's right..." His katana left deep cut marks in the ground as Emile picked it up and did a few test swings. He tossed the sword into his right hand and pulled out his black phone which reflected his determined face. A large pale skinned man in dark golden armor emerged behind Emile, wielding a ginormous sliver sword that gleamed in the ambient sunlight.

"Titan, Rampage!" Titan complied with Emile's wishes as his face plate slid into place. His green veins could be seen as he tightened his toned arms and got into a running stance. The ground beneath him cracked and rumbled as his feet shifted and pointed to the horde. Just as soon as he got into position he was gone, a yellow blur trailed behind him as he sprinted at the shadows with the precision of a bullet. Some shadows foolishly tried to attack with their weapons, but they were smacked out the air and into a pasty black mush.

Any shadows that hadn't fallen were quickly dealt with by Emile, running behind Titan entire time with his trustee blade in hand. Emile came to a full stop and looked over the battlefield for a few moments as he sheathed his sword. The shadows that attacked were nothing but black sludge and the few that were alive were crippled and weak.

Shaun, having finally recovered from his headache, propped himself to one knee. His hands were raw and his body was barely functioning from the blows he received. Carly wasn't any better, her clothes were ripped around her arms and her lip was busted and gushing a river of blood down her blouse.

"T-thanks" she stuttered and wiped the blood off her lip.

"Don't thank me, I abandoned you guys." As Emile lowered himself to Carly's level and stared into her eyes, he could see that she really didn't mean her thank you. The pain and sorrow in her emerald eyes made him feel guilty.

"This won't happen again I promise." he quickly summoned Pixie to heal his friends and began laying down the frame work for any future battle plans.

The basic plan of attack was simple; whenever the group encountered shadows Shaun would lead the charge and do his best to kill most of them. Carly would provide support away from the fight using her crossbow and Garu attacks. Emile would shift his strategies based on whatever Persona he had equipped.

"Don't abandon us this time" Shaun growled as he made his way toward the shadows messing around a large blue and white pillar. Once Shaun was a safe distance from Carly and Emile, his mind began to wonder. He took a seat on a large blue rock and rested his weary head on his hands for a moment.

"I don't blame him for giving up..." Shaun muttered as several cloaked shadows got closer to his perch on the rock. Even though his legs ached and felt like they were going to fall off, he still wasn't going to give up.

"Alright you bastards, come at me!" He leaped from the rock and descended into gathering of shadows. He snatched his red phone out his pocket and crushed it into thousands of pieces, summoning Atlas. Atlas' huge frame repelled the volley of Agi's that were being flung at him and sent them at irregular angles in the sky.

* * *

From miles away, Emile and Carly could see the fireballs spreading into the air leaving behind bright orange embers. Wasting no time, the two ran at the gathering of shadows and jumped into the fray. Emile rolled to his left to avoid a slice from a Strength's claymore and retaliated with a slice of his own.

Carly pelted the Strength shadows with Garu's and arrows from a safe distance while also healing in case Shaun and Emile looked like they were badly injured. It wasn't long until the shadows were all defeated.

"That went better than I thought" Shaun announced as he rubbed his eye.

"It's too early to celebrate" Emile replied. Shaun turned his attention to the three birdlike shadows that were approaching from the sky in a V formation. The shadows were pitch black with a few highlight of crimson red on their large menacing wings.

"Carly, shoot them down!" Emile ordered. Carly complied and sniped the birds out the air, causing them to crash into the ground kicking up piles of dust. Emile and Shaun rushed in and finished off the shadows with a barrage of kicks of slashes.

Carly turned to the large white tower that was previously under attack and gave it a strange look. She glanced at the strange flash drive in her hand.

"I'm going to try something." she inserted the drive in the towers key shaped hole.

Nothing happened for a few minutes.

Then the tower began to rumble and crack until it fell apart. Amidst the rumble was a glowing whit orb that slowly floated toward Emile. Emile's eyes glowed as the orb floated into his body and disappeared in a flash of radiant white light.

A slide show of images flashed before Emile's eyes, he could see his brother and Faith, but they weren't pleasant images.

Ray looked to be bleeding in pain, and Faith, to Emile's horror, was gazing at him with sinister yellow eyes.

* * *

**Author's Note: I must apologize for taking so long to update I of course have school to deal with and as such it may take awhile to write. I'd also like to thank Constant (something I neglected to do before) for helping beta the story and making it what it is.**

**Social Links**

**Fool, Bond: Weak**

**Shaun the Magician, Bond: Weak**

**Carly the Priestess, Bond: Weak**


	10. Love is Cruel

Love is Cruel

Emile held his head and looked down in shock as the images flashed through his cluttered mind for a few more minutes. Shaun gave him a funny look and Carly peppered him with questions about what happened. Soon Emile's mind began to catch up with his body, noticing that his limbs were limp and stringy to the point where he could barely move.

"Let's get out of here before he passes out." Carly ordered Shaun. Shaun lifted his Emile off his feet and over his shoulders, Emile's arms whipped around like a wet noodle as the two ran back to the teleport location.

* * *

Flaky yellow and red leaves crunched under Ray's heavy boots as he made his way to Faith's house. Stray leaves that clung to his body fluttered to the floor as he walked off the side walk and over to a large green lawn that effectively dwarfed those in front of the neighboring houses. Ray took a deep breath as he reached the front steps to the houses porch.

"Alright, let's see if she's okay." Ray's knuckles bounced off the white pasty door for a few seconds. Ray had suspected that Faith's mother was sick ever since he overheard her phone call with her dad. She could either deny this fact or tell him the truth, either way he was still going to ask. In an instant Faith opened the door and her familiar purple eyes stared at Ray.

Something was different about her, her normally friendly eyes were cold and uncaring, her lushes pink hair was a mess and obviously not brushed. For a few seconds Ray could see the edges of Faith's mouth curl into a small smile.

"Yes?" Ray fidgeted with the ends of his red shirt for a few minutes.

"I've been a bit worried about you..." his heart raced, "...is everything okay at home?" he blurted out. Faith frowned at Ray's comment.

"No, everything's okay." before Ray could pose any other questions, she shut the door in his face and locked it. Ray seemed to stare at the door for an eternity before he realized what had happened.

"I know she's lying..." he whispered to himself as he walked away from the steps and headed back home. He wondered how they got to this point, Faith barely spent anytime talking to him and he honestly had no idea why. Did she realize he liked her and was trying to avoid him because of this? Or was it something much, much deeper?

He stopped and took a seat on one of the large roots coming out of the ground.

"Guess I'll find out tomorrow."

* * *

Carly glared at her glowing laptop screen for a few moments. Her hands were sore from typing in so many bits of code, and her eyes were strained from staring at such a brightly lit screen. A few sticky notes that had scribbled code and sloppy writing littered the area around her computer.

She sighed and pushed her chair backwards and spun in a circle, "this doesn't make any sense." Just what happened to Emile during their journey into the computer world? The library door opening and slamming shut alerted her to Shaun's presence.

Shaun had a white Walmart bag in his hands that swung back and forth every time he took a step toward the green-eyed girl. Shaun sat the bag down on a round table and pulled out a wooden chair. "Any progress so far?" Shaun asked as he pulled a chicken sandwich out the back and a few napkins.

"None so far." she continued to type away at the keys leaving large strands of code along the pages of the computer screen.

"Makes sense, I mean there's still a lot of stuff we don't know about Emile and Ray." Carly flicked her glasses up onto her forehead and rubbed her eyes before glancing at Shaun.

"What do you mean?" her full focus was on him now, she twisted her body so that her head rested on the top of the chair and her knees were bent inwards. Shaun took a bite of his sandwich and wiped some stray crumbs off his mouth with his napkin.

"You find it weird how we don't know anything about them other than their names and what they like to do in their spare time? And how every time we talk to them they bring up Shadows and Personas?"

"No because its none of my business."

"You sure about that? I mean you and Emile are good friends right?"

"Yes."

"Do know where's he from? What's his family like? Why is he so quiet?" Carly was visibly uncomfortable but she let Shaun go on.

"Look I just find it a bit weird how the second those two show up things get crazy."

Without another word Shaun gathered his leftover food and walked out the door, leaving a confused and slightly worried Carly behind.

The group sat at their usual seats at lunch. Ray would occasionally start up a conversation that would go on for a few minutes before it was silenced. Ray tapped his fingers against the red table as he thought about what happened Friday. Emile's thoughts also reflected on that fateful Friday and just what went down.

"We still need a name for the team" Carly stated. Ray looked up at her.

"How about the Shadow Prevention Force? We could call it the SPF for short." Carly giggled at this.

"It's a bit cheesy don't you think?"

"It works though." The group once again became silent. Ray's eyes jumped all around the lunch room as he looked for Faith. He didn't intend to leave her alone until she answered his question. Out the corner of his eye, he could spy Faith's glorious pink hair flutter in the air and spill over her purple shirt.

Ray smiled and leaped out his chair, making a mad dash for Faith.

"Yo." Ray causally leaned on a nearby wall shortly after he reached her.

"Hello Ray." Faith frowned and adjusted her pink purse. She was clearly uncomfortable with how much space Ray was taking up.

"How's your family?" Ray asked. Faith grit her teeth.

"Fine."

"You sure?" Ray took a step closer to Faith. Her pink hair tickled Ray's lanky arms as he walked closer to Faith and gradually began to take all her breathing space.

"Back off!" a hard slap from Faith dazed Ray and caused all the students in the lunch room to turn their attention to them. Faith dashed out the cafeteria and into the lonely school hallways.

* * *

Faith kept running, ignoring the concerned cries coming from behind her and instead focused on getting as far away as possible from Ray. Faith stopped at a unfamiliar green locker and fell to the floor.

Her tears seeped into her purple pants as she cried. A sinister presence surrounded Faith frail body and she looked up to see something horrible. A dark purple liquid latched onto her legs and slowly crawled up her body, dripping large purple chunks of itself all the way.

Faith's tears mixed with the liquid as it slid over her arms and made them into useless appendages. Her cry's and screams were muffled as the liquid slid into her mouth and silenced her. A long strand of Pink hair was the last thing she saw as liquid covered her eyes and blinded her.

* * *

Ray's face was a mixture of betrayal and hurt. Why? He loved Faith and just wanted her to be alright, yet she still blew him off and constantly tried to avoid him. Something clicked in Ray's head and for a second his expression became one of darkness, of _hate_.

"She was leading me on wasn't she?" Ray walked out the cafeteria and decided to go home early.

The SPF sitting at the table still couldn't believe what just happened. Emile was fuming and he was ready to hunt Faith down. Carly could see the look in his eye and wrapped her hand around his. Emile's eyes softened for and he relaxed a bit.

"Damn. What's up with those two?" Shaun pointed his thumb at Ray who was walking out the cafeteria. Carly bit her lip.

"I don't know, but it doesn't seem good." the SPF mused over what happened for a few moments.

* * *

Carly sat packed between the hundreds of students gathered in the auditorium. Some students groaned and texted on their phones while others were eager to hear what was going on. Carly figured that the assembly must have had something to do with Faith and how she hadn't shown up for school since her fight with Ray. Now that she thought about, Ray hadn't showed up for school either and from what Emile told her he was missing too.

A small gray haired man in a brown blazer stepped up to the tall wooden podium sitting off to the side.

"It is with great sadness that we announce that two students have gone missing recently." the principle cleared his throat.

"Ray Knight and Faith Yamamoto have gone missing last Monday." Carly was gone as well.

As soon as the principle told he students this, the lights went out and engulfed the auditorium in darkness.

* * *

**Social Links**

**Fool, Bond: Weak**

**Shaun the Magician, Bond: Weak**

**Carly the Priestess, Bond: Weak**


End file.
